Category: Mice
Manufacturer: Microsoft
Product: IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0
Gallery: Click Here
Price: $39.99
Release Date: September 21, 2006

“More top LAN players use the IntelliMouse [Explorer] 3.0 than any other mouse.”
- GotFrag Hardware, March 2006

We made this statement back in March when we posted an addendum to our original mouse round-up. We posted this addendum due to the immense response we received from the community for not including the Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0. We had thought, with all the advances in technology, that today's mice were far better than this older mouse and that the popularity of this mouse was only sustained by a few fanboys who relentlessly put this mouse on a pedestal. Apparently, we were wrong.

After many years of this mouse not being manufactured, and its availability becoming rare, Microsoft has heard your cries and re-released the Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0. This mouse is easily one of the most sought after mice on the internet. People would pay as high at $60 for this mouse, used, on auction sites just to experience what was said to be the best performance you could receive from a mouse.

Here at GotFrag Hardware, we have emphasized in all of our peripheral reviews that this category of hardware is a very subjective one. Each person will have different tastes in what feels better and what size is too small or too big.

Everyone has a personal preference when it comes to peripherals. The IME 3.0 is the perfect example of the phrase "One man's trash is another man's treasure." There are many people who love this mouse, and a significant amount of hype revolved around it. On the flip side, many people do not understand why there are those who would live and die by this 5 year old mouse when technology has come so far since its release. Today, GotFrag Hardware not only has the chance to review the re-release of this legendary mouse, but to compare it to an original IME 3.0 from 2002. We will now explore and attempt to discover why this mouse has become so legendary over the years.

Let us begin...